


Qui-Gon Jinn: Path, Truth, Choices, Heirloom, Hidden

by lferion



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Double Drabble, Drabble, Drabble Collection, Force-ghosts, Gen, One Sentence Ficlet meme, The Living Force, Wakes & Funerals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-02
Updated: 2011-08-02
Packaged: 2017-10-22 03:05:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/233064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lferion/pseuds/lferion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four one-sentence drabbles and one two-sentence double-drabble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Qui-Gon Jinn: Path, Truth, Choices, Heirloom, Hidden

**Author's Note:**

  * For [morgynleri](https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/gifts).



**Path**

There was a faint path running through the trees, invisible but for the glimmer of starlight on pale stone here, an eddy of whispering grasses there — no disarray of scattered leaves, no heel or hoof-prints marked soft loam, no thread of cloth or hair wisp fluttered, caught on twig or dagger-thorn, no sign but possibility visible to outer eyes or sense at all, yet to inner-sight, the very absence was a signal, and to Qui-Gon’s keen Force-sense the swift and fiercely joyous passage of the Aeirykith was clear as a ribbon of silver-green light, fled to freedom beyond the wood.  


* * *

**Truth**

The path to truth for a Jedi was rife with choices — did one stay close to the Temple filled with all the artifacts and heirlooms of the Order’s long and storied history, a flame hidden amongst other flames, tending the gardens, teaching those who came, watching over them as they went to and fro on business of the Order, whim of the Senate, the Will of the Force; or did one embrace that outward and visible journey, seek knowledge among the many and diverse peoples of the universe, actively work to expand the harmony and beauty of the Living Force? For Qui-Gon, that choice had never been in question: light or dark, shadow or sunlight, going or staying, fighting or loving, speaking or listening — none of those were choices, binaries, exclusive one of the other, nor even incompatible divergences, however stark the contrast between them; no, in Master Qui-Gon’s truth there were few ‘ors’ but many ‘ands’ — the Living Force was his lodestone and inspiration, guide and sustenance, and in that vast and varied plenitude true opposites or antitheses were rare indeed: even life and death were not necessarily mutually exclusive, when looked at from a certain point of view.  


* * *

**Choices**

Finis Valorum had met Qui-Gon Jinn at a time when both had a choice before them: in some ways the same choice, in others quite different; both had chosen service over study (though certainly one never stopped learning, growing in skill and knowledge, perception and understanding, were one the least advertent), both had chosen a kind of solitude, though that singleness had never precluded companionship or even intimacy, and throughout the lives shaped by those choices they'd maintained a connection nourishing both; now Citizen Valorum stood at his oldest friend's pyre, oddly feeling still not alone -- choice, chance, change continued.  


* * *

**Heirloom**

The cup is an heirloom of the House, hand-raised from a single sheet of green-bronze to an intricate and graceful shape, inscribed with ancient symbols and set with gems of subtle color that catch the light and glimmer in the shadows, old, storied and with a mind of it’s own, defenses that rise at threat to those of the House, or to it’s own self — it has never been stolen but that the thief returned it directly, unharmed; Qui-Gon raises it in solemn toast to mark the signing of the alliance-compact, unsurprised to see the mead within glowing faintly green.  


* * *

**Hidden**

When one has gone entirely into the Force, one is occult, hidden, unseen, except by those one chooses to be perceived by — chosen, and the effort made to shape oneself in form, clothe thought, will and feeling in a semblance to be seen, heard, in very rare circumstances touched, sensed directly in the solid world by those with eyes to see, ears to hear, and the trained skill to use them; ‘tis no light matter (though indeed it is of the Light) to hold oneself coherent and discrete within the Unifying Force, aphysical: within the Living Force, I yet live.  


* * *


End file.
